For any band making its first record, it’s tough enough to write music that entertains and keeps the fans satiated, chanting along and coming back for more.

But in the making of their debut LP, “Fight With Tools,” the Flobots weren’t satisfied with entertainment alone.

“We were thinking that music could be something more than entertainment,” said Jamie Laurie, a.k.a. Jonny 5, one of the Flobots’ MCs. “As a band, we have unusual resources. We have an audience and regular performances where we play and speak in front of young people. The stage can be a platform for social change and civic organization.”

Social change and civic organization are towering goals, especially for a local band with a regional draw. Such goals require time, integrity and carry- through. And less than three years after first coming together, the Flobots are here to show their fans and peers what they’ve done — and how others can do the same thing, both musically and politically.

“Every person has the potential to be great,” said Stephen Brackett, who MCs under the name Brer Rabbit. “Working with all these people in the band has made me a better person, and activism isn’t necessarily waving a picket sign. Activism can just be being a better person.”

Last year was a great one for the Denver-born hip-hop collective. They release of the hotly produced debut album, “Fight With Tools,” played Red Rocks with the Fray, solidified their social work focus and surpassed the 3,000-copy mark in sales of their EP. But 2008 is going to be the Flobots’ year to remember.

“Fight With Tools,” which made both of The Denver Post critics’ year-end local Top 10 lists, is consistently among the best sellers at Twist & Shout Records. After winning the “Hometown for the Holidays” contest on Channel 93, KTCL/93.3 FM, its single “Handlebars” is in regular rotation on the modern rock station. They’ve signed with a prominent hip-hop booking agent and are looking to tour later this year. And they’re taking calls from multiple labels, both majors and indies.

All of this has helped the band sell out its Gothic Theatre show on Saturday — a week in advance, even.

“We never thought we were a band that had that kind of appeal,” said bass player Jesse Walker, who added that the band’s MySpace plays have jumped from 300 per day to 3,000 per day. “We love ‘Handlebars,’ but we never knew it could be a hit on the radio.”

Of course this newfound audience signifies much more to the Flobots than a potential jump in merchandise sales. Bigger crowds represent a bigger chance for change and organization and a better platform for the band’s very own nonprofit organization, flobots.org.Flobots.org. is the name (and eventual Web address, in the coming weeks) of the group’s nonprofit, which will aim at connecting interested bands with worthwhile community groups in need of assistance because, according to its mission statement, “artists have the power and responsibility to positively impact their communities.”

The band is out to “use our social and cultural capital to promote civic and academic engagement through literacy, volunteerism and creative expression.”

In short, they’re hooking their peers — bands and fans — with three organizations in need of help: the Colorado Progressive Coalition; the Denver Children’s Home; and the Student Peace Alliance, a group lobbying for the creation of a Cabinet-level U.S. Department of Peace.

“If that’s not a great reason to be in a band and effect positive change, then I don’t know what is,” said Eli Mishkin, frontman for the Hot IQs, who is opening for the Flobots on Saturday. “They’re going far out of their way to be activists, and they back up what they preach in their music.”

While some of the Flobots are naturals in the political arena, others had to learn the game.

“We’re not six people who are all inherently activists,” said Mackenzie Roberts, the band’s viola player. “But through being with one another, we’ve become that way.”

Roberts, Laurie and guitarist Andy Guerrero already teach weekly classes at the Denver Children’s Home, which houses and helps traumatized and abused kids ages 6-18. As kids weave through their three courses in guitar, music and lyrics, and recording, they’re able to cut a record singing or rapping over music they wrote and played with Guerrero, Laurie and Roberts.

“For some of these kids, this is their last chance,” said Guerrero. “And they’re amazingly talented. We’re lucky to be working with them.”

Flobots

Ricardo Baca is the editor of The Cannabist. After 12 years as The Denver Post's music critic and a couple more as the paper's entertainment editor, he was tapped to become The Post's first ever marijuana editor and create The Cannabist in late-2013. Baca also founded music blog Reverb and co-founded music festival The UMS.